John Shoemaker: Relentless conflict at home

Wednesday

And the opposing sides are digging in with neighbor against neighbor and television commentators at war.

All sides shoot at each other with epithets, ugly refrains and personal insults.

Civility is lost and bitterness deepens.

More than ever, politics in America is about “personalities” and not necessarily “policies.”

The Democrat’s official platform details a laundry list of concepts like economic security, more jobs, minimum and higher pay, environmental justice, excellent healthcare, affordable education, keeping faith with Veterans and supports world leadership.

Yet, heard in the news are Democrat actions for giving illegal immigrant protection (sanctuaries) and voting rights, slavery reparations, raising taxes on the rich and corporations, open borders, more regulations, supporting Planned Parenthood, and passing new restrictions on guns and the Second Amendment.

The Republican’s official platform details another list of concepts like American exceptionalism, Constitutional government, peace through strength, improved foreign affairs, fairness for America in trade, less spending and lower deficits, reduce government regulations, control our borders, promote energy development and create a new healthcare system.

Yet, heard in the news are Republican actions to ban racial groups, deport illegals, war mongering in the Middle East and North Korea, collusion with Russians to subvert our political process, corruption and lies by the president and destruction of the planet with climate change.

In debates across the country, the disagreements are so emotional that fair and objective assessment of policies is lost in acrimony and aspersions.

Many Democrats don’t want to hear anything positive about President Donald Trump’s actions. As the rare clean joke goes, he could cure cancer and they would complain about not curing the common cold. It gets so nasty that Hollywood has taken the gauntlet and resorted to the worst of accusations, dark comedy, vile language never heard before on television and otherwise displaying disgusting, if not violent behavior.

Republicans spend incredible energy finding fault with Democratic efforts to impeach Trump. While the Republicans say the Democrats only spend, spend, spend. Yet, the Republicans passed a bloated budget that increases debt and deficit. Worse, there is enough Republican infighting to give Trump a headache.

This only divides the country with more emotion than elucidation.

Nancy Pelosi makes inflammatory comments like the tax cut benefits being a “pile of doggy poo with a cherry on top,” or the tax cut is nothing but “crumbs” or insinuated that Trump lacked an understanding that all humans have a “spark of divinity” when he called MS-13 “animals.”

Trump himself makes outrageous remarks and uses his rallies around the country as a platform to chant insulting names of opponents and exaggerates or is outright wrong about facts and statistics. He sounds more like a marketing evangelist than a government leader.

Yet, we must look at what is really happening.

We have an inexperienced politician, with an ego driven, arrogant and demanding personality. He breaks the mold and shakes the establishment to its roots. Trump is an unpredictable contrarian who energizes people and events with emotion and hype.

He also may be just what is needed today.

In a short time, President Trump has improved the economy dramatically. Business climate is more positive than any time in recent memory. Consumer optimism remains high. Job growth is consistent. Unemployment is at historic lows. The statistics and surveys prove all this without equivocation.

It is too soon to determine if the tax cut was a brilliant move or a complete disaster. Republicans are counting on it to raise revenue and offset the spending by Democrats. The Democrats believe it only helps the rich and will add trillions to our deficit.

The tax cut officially went into effect on April 15. Even before that, corporations were passing out bonuses, salary increases and additional benefits (such as Walmart paying for employee college educations) to between 3-4 million Americans at last count.

We also haven’t seen the impact of trillions in cash repatriated from overseas. It is not clear if corporations will make substantial capital investments or just stock buybacks. Initial results are quite promising.

All are worried about the efficacy of U.S. tariffs that may cause trade wars. Trump is pushing the envelope.

Some Republicans say that Democrats are just plain wrong. Democrats will say that Republicans are evil. All sides create a destructive hysteria.

Feeding this are several unresolved major problems, including a new health care system and a coherent immigration law. Both must be addressed.

We should look closer at the policies and not the personalities when judging Trump’s actions and results.

Hopefully, at the least, all will admit that if Trump ends the Korean conflict and begins a process on a long road to denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, that it will be considered a good thing.

Then again, maybe not.

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